The present invention relates generally to vehicle dispatch and navigation and relates particularly to speech recognition dialogue systems.
Vehicle route guidance systems are becoming an increasingly common feature in today""s motor vehicles. Advanced vehicle route guidance systems take advantage of a global positioning system""s tracking capability to sense a vehicle location, determine the location of an anticipated vehicle maneuver, and to give instructions with speech generation, taking into account such things as vehicle speed, performance characteristics of the vehicle, and driver instruction timing preferences.
In planning a route for travel, such systems take certain attributes into consideration such as traffic congestion, concentration, intensity of traffic, and driver preferences. Such systems, however, typically cater to the needs of the commuter or traveling business person. Hence, these systems are not particularly suited for use in an emergency dispatch and navigation system involving multiple vehicles such as patrol vehicles used by law enforcement personnel.
Currently an officer responding to a call for assistance relies on his partner or xe2x80x9cco-pilotxe2x80x9d to locate an address on a map and provide instructions for navigation. Officers responding to such calls typically drive at faster than normal speeds and thus require instructions that anticipate the rapidity of vehicle maneuvers. An officer engaged in such rapid travel may generally rely on the supplemental knowledge of the partner regarding the patrol area in determining the best route for transit. Such a partner may consider factors other than the fastest and most direct route for travel and base the recommendations on safety factors. As a result, an officer may rely on his/her partner for advice concerning the best speed with which to navigate a particular portion of a route.
In addition to directions regarding a route for travel, an officer also wishes to receive information concerning a call for assistance. Such information is usually relayed over a radio to the officers in the vehicle, and when such information is relayed concurrent with the verbal relay of driving directions, such information can be lost. These problems indicate a need for a more efficient means of dispatch and selection of information in law enforcement applications and it is the task of the present invention to address these needs.
According to one aspect of the invention, a navigation apparatus is provided which may be used by law enforcement personnel for rapid intervention to a location while adding safety and reliability to the process. The apparatus includes a computer system, having an operating system, memory and a user interface. The system further includes a positioning system, such as a GPS system for determining the position of a vehicle. The positioning system communicates with the operating system. An information database, communicating with the operating system, contains at least one datum related to routing information concerning routes for travel by the vehicle. The routing information includes safety information concerning route safety in the traveling region accessible by the vehicle. The apparatus further includes a routing system in communication with the operating system that determines a route based at least in part on the routing information.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.